Governor's race isn't only one facing Ohio voters

They're called down-ticket races, but Ohioans have a big stake this fall in electing the state's top cop, banker, vote-counter and financial watchdog.

They’re called down-ticket races, but Ohioans have a big stake this fall in electing the state’s top cop, banker, vote-counter and financial watchdog.

The Dispatch takes a look at the status of campaigns for offices other than governor.

Secretary of state

How vast are the disagreements between Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted and Democratic challenger Sen. Nina Turner?

They don’t even agree on whether people are paying attention to their ballot race.

“As I’ve traveled the state, I’ve found that people are really paying attention, whereas 10 years ago people wouldn’t have really known what the secretary of state does,” said Turner, 46, of Cleveland. “People are really paying more attention to who the secretary of state is or what that person should do than they were a generation ago.”

The past four years in Ohio have been stocked full of partisan battles over voting laws. Sometimes, Husted has been on the opposite side of the GOP-controlled legislature — such as a failed attempt by lawmakers to require a photo ID from voters at the polls and Husted’s unsuccessful crusade to allow online voter registration.

But Republicans have passed several laws, and Husted has issued directives rolling back some of the state’s early voting hours. Many of those laws and directives have been overturned through Democrats’ lawsuits in federal court.

Turner thinks those early-voting fights will drive the race this fall; Husted says those fights aren’t registering with voters who live outside the Columbus beltway.

“The discussion is very different when I am out and about across the state,” said Husted, 46, a past Ohio House speaker. “More people tell me they would rather see us all vote on Tuesdays than they would during this extended period. I wind up trying to explain to them the advantages of early voting.”

Husted’s mantra is that he has made it “easy to vote and hard to cheat in Ohio.” He cites his work to reduce the number of duplicate registrations on Ohio’s roll of 7.7 million voters from more than 340,000 to four, as well as his mailing of statewide absentee applications to all registered voters.

Husted also moved to seek out and refer for prosecution the state’s rare occurrences of fraud.

Turner said, “I really want to expand and protect access to the ballot box” and that Husted hasn't done that. She points to a federal judge’s orders for Husted to rescind the early voting hours he set for the upcoming fall election and set new ones so that they include voting on the final three days before Election Day.

“As much as I don’t like to think this is true ... people don’t know they have an auditor of state, they don’t know who that person is, or what that guy does,” Yost said.

Carney agrees, but said that as he talks to voters about the auditor’s responsibility for ensuring the accountability and efficiency of government, they are interested.

“People want to know what they are getting for their tax dollars,” said Carney, a lawyer elected to the Ohio House in 2008 to represent northern Columbus, including Clintonville.

Carney, 38, has billed himself as a “fair-minded, middle-of- the-road” candidate who can provide more transparency and oversight in a state government run entirely by Republicans.

During his 3 1/2 years as auditor, Yost, 57, said he has strived to be fair and impartial. The former Delaware County prosecutor has not always sided with his fellow Republicans. Over the objections of Gov. John Kasich, Yost unsuccessfully sought “a full public accounting” of JobsOhio, the private corporation set up by Kasich and the legislature in 2011 to oversee economic development and attract jobs to Ohio.

Carney said the big message he’s getting from voters is that they are tired of partisan bickering over just about every issue at all levels of government. But he has taken shots at his opponent, most recently saying Yost has not been aggressive enough in investigating privately operated, tax-funded charter schools. The complaint follows allegations against the Horizon Science Academy in Dayton about possible test cheating and inflated attendance records.

“It’s the auditor’s job to hold all of our schools responsible,” Carney said.

Yost agreed and insists that he has. He said he also sup-ports a recently announced legislative review of state charter-school laws.

“I think my record is, I’ve been vigilant and aggressive on charter schools and holding them to be accountable just like any other kind of government,” he said.

He noted that 7 percent of all charter-school audits have included a finding that tax dollars be returned while only 3 percent of traditional public school audits included such findings for recovery.

Treasurer

Republican Treasurer Josh Mandel and Cincinnati Democratic Rep. Connie Pillich both have military backgrounds. Mandel served as a U.S. Marine for two tours in Iraq; Pillich served eight years in the Air Force, all of it on active duty.

Mandel, 36, is a former state representative and Lyndhurst City Council member. In 2012, he lost a hotly contested campaign for U.S. Senate against incumbent Sherrod Brown. As the incumbent in this race, Mandel has parlayed the power of his office to make many visits to communities throughout the state and the legal go-ahead to spend about $100,000 on town- hall-style conference calls to thousands of constituents.

As treasurer, Mandel highlights taxpayer savings from trimming his staff, launching a new investment program for local governments that has generated high returns on more than $2 billion invested and a ratings increase for the Ohio Enterprise Bond Fund. He wants to have the state’s “ checkbook” placed online so all Ohioans can track state spending.

Mandel was swept up in the recent trial of businessman and major Republican contributor Benjamin Suarez. Suarez was found not guilty of making illegal campaign contributions, but during the trial it was shown that Mandel’s chief fundraiser was doing favors for Suarez through the treasurer’s office about the same time he was soliciting donations from Suarez for Mandel’s Senate race.

Mandel did not return a call seeking comment, and two aides declined to be quoted for this story during a phone interview.

Pillich, 53, is a state lawmaker and lawyer with a master’s degree in business administration. As a first-time candidate for statewide office, she faces a big challenge in getting recognition throughout the state. This is the third time Mandel has been on the statewide ballot.

Since announcing her candidacy, Pillich has campaigned actively, holding roundtable meetings with veterans groups and talking about financial- literacy issues. She is also putting out word that the deadline is approaching for Ohio veterans from the Iraq war to apply for the state bonus.

“She knows how tough it is to make ends meet while on active duty,” campaign spokesman Jake Strassberger said.

Pillich’s most recent campaign proposal was to appoint a non- partisan inspector general for the treasurer’s office to ensure proper spending in the office, which handles taxpayers’ money.

She also has pushed for greater use of the treasurer’s economic-development clout.

Attorney general

The race between incumbent Republican Mike DeWine and Democrat David Pepper has generated sparks.

DeWine, 67, a former U.S. senator, congressman, lieutenant governor, state lawmaker and county prosecutor, has pushed hard on crime-related campaign issues, and upgraded the Bureau of Criminal Investigation. He got involved in fighting prescription-drug abuse and heroin addiction, initiated the testing of rape-kit evidence that had been gathering dust in police files for years, and pursued charges against sexual predators and people who prey on the elderly.

But Pepper, 43, a former Hamilton County commissioner and Cincinnati City Council member, has spent a great deal of the campaign blasting DeWine for what he calls “pay-to- play” in his office. Pepper says DeWine awarded lucrative special-counsel contracts to individuals and firms who gave to his political campaign or to the Ohio Republican Party. Pepper also has accused DeWine (and Gov. John Kasich) of not doing enough to fight the state’s heroin epidemic.

“It’s the everywhere issue,” said Peter Koltak, spokesman for Pepper. “There’s a real sense that the state’s response is inadequate. People from Cuyahoga (County) to Brown County say they feel left out.”

The DeWine camp thinks some of the most significant issues in the race are heroin and drug abuse and consumer scams of elderly Ohioans. “His No. 1 priority has always been protecting Ohio families,” DeWine spokesman Ryan Stubenrauch said. “Mike DeWine will stand up his record against anybody.”

DeWine hasn’t done much campaigning yet this year, confining his activity mostly to weekends and the county fair circuit. Pepper is maintaining an aggressive campaign schedule, traveling the state to fairs, parades and community events almost every day. He is focusing on northeastern and northwestern Ohio, where he is lesser known than in his Cincinnati-area home base.

jvardon@dispatch.com

ccandisky@dispatch.com

ajohnson@dispatch.com

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